1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to routing of electronic mail. More particularly, the present invention relates to using a physical address of a recipient to send an electronic mail message.
2. Related Art
In a conventional electronic mail system. electronic mail (e-mail) is transmitted from a transmitting host to a recipient. However, in such an e-mail system, before the transmitting host transmits an e-mail, a sender at the transmitting host must first specify a unique electronic mail address to which the electronic mail is to be sent. E-mail addresses are abstract in that they do not relate to any physical, identifiable information. Furthermore, unlike a home address, most recipients do not have an e-mail account.
For instance, the e-mail address, santa@mailservera.divisionone.com can be used as an e-mail address for the user Santa. There are several problems associated with e-mail addresses, however. First, e-mail addresses may change often, due to system users changing service providers. Thus, the sender may not know that the e-mail address of the recipient has changed. Secondly, there are many databases highly utilized by both private industries and public agencies that do not contain e-mail information for users. Thirdly, although one may know Santa is physically located somewhere at the North Pole, the sender wishing to send e-mail to Santa may not be able to remember Santa's exact e-mail address. Finally, and perhaps, most importantly, if the sender makes a typographical error in the e-mail address of the recipient, the piece of e-mail will not be sent.